Inside The Warner Bros. Lobbying Bonanza

Lobbying armies are being amassed in real time as the media giants vying to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery — Netflix and Paramount Skydance — game out the Washington landscape in pursuit of their prize.

Netflix’s nearly $83 billion deal to acquire the legendary Hollywood studio was already facing scrutiny from leaders in Washington before Paramount Skydance upped the ante this morning with a hostile takeover bid of its own.

It was the latest twist in what’s expected to be a lobbying bonanza as each side works to sell the acquisition in Washington. President Donald Trump’s vow that he will be personally involved in deciding the transaction threatens to scramble the typical lobbying calculus for contentious mergers — and it already has triggered a race to bolster each side’s stable of lobbyists with people who can shape the narrative inside and outside the White House.

While Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has lobbied Trump personally to support the streaming giant’s bid for WBD — leaving Sarandos with enough of an indication the bid would have Trump’s support — the president told reporters at the Paramount Skydance-hosted Kennedy Center Honors last night that the Netflix deal “could be a problem.”

Besides his mid-November meeting with Trump, Sarandos went to the White House again last Tuesday, three days before the announcement, according to three people familiar with the visit, including a person who saw him. Clete Willems, Netflix’s chief global affairs officer, accompanied Sarandos to the White House, according to that person.

A Netflix spokesperson said that Sarandos didn’t meet with Trump last Tuesday. Asked if Trump met with Sarandos during his visit, an official said the White House does not comment “on private meetings that may or may not have happened.”

Both parties jockeying to buy Warner Bros. Discovery already have serious lobbying firepower. Netflix brought on Willems, a deputy director of the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term, in April. On Monday, Netflix announced another new hire with ties to the White House. Virginia Boney Moore, who served as a special assistant to the president in Trump’s first Office of Legislative Affairs, joined the company from Amazon as director for federal affairs.

Netflix has already spent $2.3 million lobbying Washington through the first three quarters of 2025, up from an annual record of $1.9 million last year, disclosures show. The streamer’s roster of outside lobbyists includes Monument Advocacy, Mehlman Consulting and Miller & Chevalier.

Paramount, which has spent nearly $4.6 million on federal lobbying so far this year, also added two other outside lobbying firms to its roster in 2025: Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and Telemedia Policy Corp. The company’s stable of outside firms also includes Capitol Tax Partners, Becker & Poliakoff, Capitol Counsel and FGS Global, according to disclosure filings.

And though Paramount’s longtime chief lobbyist announced last week that she plans to step down next month, the media giant in October hired Makan Delrahim, who ran DOJ’s antitrust division during Trump’s first term, to be its new chief legal officer. Delrahim, who worked as an antitrust attorney at Brownstein for more than a decade, oversees Paramount’s government relations efforts as part of his new role.

One lobbying powerhouse has an interest on both sides: Ballard Partners represents Netflix and Paramount, as well as the Motion Picture Association, of which both entertainment giants are members. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is poised to wield influence over the antitrust review of any deal to buy Warner, is among several Ballard alumni now in the Trump administration.

Paramount hired Ballard Partners days before Trump’s second term began, and has paid the firm $270,000 through the first three quarters of the year, disclosures show. Netflix hired Ballard in March, and has paid the firm $120,000 through the first three quarters of the year.

“Our firm has had the privilege of representing many of the world’s leading entertainment companies on crucial issues such as copyright, tax, and trade matters,” Brian Ballard, the firm’s founder, said in a statement. “Given our nearly 1,000 clients, conflicts occasionally arise when their business decisions place them in competition with one another. In such instances, we address the situation directly with the affected clients to find a mutually agreeable resolution.”

Both Netflix and Paramount have courted the services of Jason Miller, a close ally of the Trump administration and veteran of all three Trump campaigns, according to a person familiar with the matter, granted anonymity to speak about confidential personnel discussions. But he recently started providing communications advice for an investor with an interest in Paramount taking over WBD, according to the person.

Miller, who has posted numerous times on X in recent days against the Netflix deal or in favor of Paramount honcho David Ellison’s bid, declined to comment.

Warner Bros. Discovery has also brought on former Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita as a consultant to help deal with the transaction, according to a person familiar with the matter. LaCivita declined to comment.

In addition to the antitrust concerns raised by the Netflix deal, opponents across the political spectrum have raised issues about everything from Sarandos’ views on theatrical releases of movies to Netflix programming that touches on transgender issues.

Trump’s dealings with Sarandos have also irked some White House aides, according to the lobbyist, who said they “weren’t wild about him dealing directly with the president.”

K Street is also waiting to see how much of a role Congress will play in any deal to buy WBD. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who chairs the Judiciary panel’s antitrust subcommittee, promised an “intense” hearing on Netflix’s deal in posts on X over the weekend.

On the Democratic side, lawmakers like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — who already opposed the Netflix deal and was already investigating Skydance’s purchase of Paramount — seized today on the inclusion of funding from presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner and a handful of Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds in Paramount’s bid for WBD.

Paramount said in regulatory filings that Kushner’s investment firm and the sovereign wealth funds would forgo voting rights in the new company. But even the lobbyist involved acknowledged the optics at play. “I’m not sure that Larry Ellison needs a lot of money from Jared Kushner,” they said.

While any hearing is likely to serve as a focal point for Washington, Trump “is the boss,” said a second lobbyist. “In the old days, the Hill really had a voice,” the person added. “The Hill could kill deals. Now, it’s like … silence, crickets.”

Outside parties who stand to be affected by the deal are also weighing in. An assortment of anonymous Hollywood insiders who identified themselves only as “concerned feature film producers” aired their concerns in a letter to Congress last week, writing that Netflix could “effectively hold a noose around the theatrical marketplace,” Variety reported.

Cinemas United, which represents movie theater owners, used equally alarmist language in a statement voicing its opposition to the Netflix deal, with President and CEO Michael O’Leary warning in a statement that it “poses an unprecedented threat to the global exhibition business.”

“Netflix’s stated business model does not support theatrical exhibition. In fact, it is the opposite,” he said, imploring regulators to “look closely at the specifics of this proposed transaction and understand the negative impact it will have on consumers, exhibition and the entertainment industry.”